VIENNA — Austria’s Chancellor announced on Friday that Gazprom, the state-owned gas company of Russia, will halt gas supplies to the country’s OMV utility as of early Saturday. He reassured the public that the nation’s underground gas reserves are at full capacity and that there are available supplies from sources outside of Russia.

This decision to terminate the gas supply comes after OMV declared it would cease payments for Gazprom’s gas to its Austrian operations. This move was taken to address a substantial 230 million euro arbitration award won by OMV concerning a previous gas shortage delivered to its subsidiary in Germany.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer emphasized that Austria is well-prepared with alternative energy sources, stating confidently that “no one will freeze” due to the gas supply disruption.